BRADLEY WIGGINS took the race leader’s yellow jersey as Team Sky showed their power on the Tour de France’s first summit finish.

The Brit fulfilled his life-long dream as colleague Chris Froome capped a superlative performance from the British squad with victory on stage seven.

Froome won the stage with a late burst after successfully stemming an attack from defending champion Cadel Evans (BMC Racing), who finished second, with Wiggins third and Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) fourth.

Triple Olympic champion Wiggins said: “I’ve dreamt about this all year but until you go through the process, put it into action and do like we did today – it’s an incredible feeling.

“It hasn’t sunk in yet. It sounds corny but it’s something I’ve dreamt of since I was a child.

RadioShack-Nissan’s Fabian Cancellara won the opening prologue in Liege last Saturday and began the day with an advantage of seven seconds over Wiggins but crumbled and now lies one minute 43 seconds behind in 11th place.

Following Team Sky’s punishing pace which decimated the field, the Swiss is one of just 11 riders within two minutes of Wiggins entering the 157.5km eighth stage from Belfort to Porrentruy.

This features seven categorised climbs and the overall contenders are set to be whittled down further in Monday’s 41.5km time-trial to Besancon.

The anticipated two-horse race between Wiggins and Evans appears set to continue for the remainder of the race.

After emulating Tom Simpson, Sean Yates, Chris Boardman and David Millar by wearing the maillot jaune, the goal now for Wiggins is to become the first Briton on the Tour podium in Paris come July 22 as the first British winner.

Wiggins, already wearing a yellow helmet with Team Sky leading the team classification, added: “We survived a very, very manic first week and here we are. I’m pleased that we’re in yellow.

“We’ll take it day by day now but you can’t choose when you take the yellow jersey in the Tour de France.

“We’ve got it now and there’s another tough day tomorrow but there shouldn’t be too many problems. Then we’ve got the time trial and we’ll try to consolidate in that.

“Then it’s a rest day and we’re halfway through the Tour and we’ll defend it every day now.

“Cadel is on our heels so it’s not something we’re going to accidentally try to lose to him.”